The desire to customize an automobile to one's own personal desires is almost as old as the automobile itself. From different paint colors to add-on accessories, owners and users of automobiles go to varying lengths to create a look they consider meets their desires.
One prominent area of an automobile having an impact on the look and design are the wheels. From the limited wood spoked wheels of early automobiles, to steel wheels with hubcaps, to alloy spoked wheels, automobile wheels have evolved into many varieties and configurations which modify the appearance of an automobile and may suit particular preferences.
In addition to the wheels themselves, decorative parts have been added to wheels in order to further change their appearance. For example, hubcaps have been used to cover, for example, steel wheel structures and lend greater aesthetic appeal. U.S. Pat. No. 3,025,110 discloses one such hubcap configured to attached to a pressed wheel assembly of an automobile.
Similarly, individual decoration parts have also been introduced and used to customize spoked wheel assemblies (e.g., alloy wheels). US 2013/0099555 discloses a wheel for a motor vehicle including at least one spoke, and a swallowtail profile disposed on the spoke. The wheel also includes a spoke module with swallowtail encompassing regions, which are configured to be pushed onto the swallowtail profile, thereby allowing for placement of a decoration part at a predetermined location.
EP 0 475 915 describes a motor vehicle wheel provided with an interchangeable decorative part to be directly applied to the wheel spokes. The outer surface of the decorative part can have an independent configuration other than the one of the inner portion which is applied to the spokes. The decorative part is affixed to the wheel by screws or bolts passed through fastening holes of the decorative part.
US 2012/0080932 describes a rim is provided for a motor vehicle wheel that includes a rim hub for fastening to a shaft and a plurality of rim struts each connected to the rim ring and to the rim hub. Between each two adjacent rim struts a cooling opening is formed, and the assembly includes a fastening for a releasable connection to a flow guide plate for guiding headwind.